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Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day and T. Obinkaram Echewa’s I Saw the Sky Catch Fire (Fire) examine the impacts of slavery and colonialism and the ways in which Àjf battles these forces in its attempts to reconsecrate the earth of origins. Both works demonstrate the curvilinear and intergenerational nature of Àjf, and both are structured similarly to Yoruba and Igbo divination systems. Odù is the Deity of Àjf, and Odù is the spiritual writing of Ifá divination . Odù Ifá consists of sixteen primary ¤gures called Olódù. Each Olódù contains sixteen ese ifá, making a total of 256 divination verses. Using palmnuts, the babaláwo casts divination to reveal the Olódù that is relevant to the client’s dilemma. Following this, and depending upon the particular needs of the client, the babaláwo recites some or all of the sixteen corresponding ese ifá. Igbo dibia (diviners) are guided by Agwu, the Deity of Divination. Agwu also serves as “the intuitive impulse of divination—what you might call the creative genius in a diviner.”1 Agwu works with and through the dibia to reveal Ogu, Divine Truth and Moral Authority, and the path to Ofo, In¤nite Justice. One method of Igbo divination involves the use of ogu, pieces from the central vein of the palm frond. A client brings four to six ogu to the dibia, who uses them to divine.2 One might say the ogu (palm pieces) reveal Ogu (Truth). As do many African peoples, the Igbo and Yoruba have many systems of divination. In addition to Afa divination, which is similar to Ifá, dibia may use the akpa dibia, the dibia bag, which is ¤lled with ritual objects, not unlike the African American Hoodoo bag.3 In Yorubaland , divination by sixteen cowries is popular, and Igbo and Yoruba 3 Word Becoming Flesh and Text in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day and T. Obinkaram Echewa’s I Saw the Sky Catch Fire peoples both use the four-lobed kola nut to divine. However, sacred texts and ritual utterances (Odù and Ogu) are central to all these divination systems. Babaláwo and dibia have vast reserves of sacred texts, proverbs, “symbolic language[s],” analytical skills, and even “tricks” that they may use to aid their clients.4 Echewa and Naylor appear to have been inspired by Afa and Ifá; Fire and Mama Day are novels that consist of divine and intricately woven verses. In Mama Day, the term “Odù Ifá” could be translated as 1823, for this is the date, the code, the primary ¤gure that contains all texts. 1823 is also synonymous with Sapphira, who is the novel’s Odù, the Great Mother and the owner of all lives, texts, and subtexts. Fire is made up of numerous interrelated Ogu, texts of Divine Truth. However , these verses are not uttered by a dibia, which is an of¤ce that, in the past, has been largely restricted to males. These Ogu are those lived, chanted, and meted out by Oha Ndom, the Solidarity of Women, as they undertake the comprehensive Ogu Umunwanye (Women’s Wars) necessary to bring about In¤nite Justice (Ofo). Nne-nne is the repository of history and truth in Fire, and with the utterance of one night, she oils the wheels of justice and reciprocity for innumerable lifetimes . Working through their spiritually adept protagonists, Naylor and Echewa, as literary diviners, use various skills, tricks, and powers to educate, plumb the analytical mettle, and gauge the evolutionary capacity of the textual characters and their actual audiences. Part One of Fire, with which this analysis is concerned, details the exploits of Oha Ndom who battled colonialism in the 1920s. Whether they are solos or choral efforts, each verse is an integral part of the uni¤ed Ogu that Ndom created during its quest to repair and restructure its society. Family matriarch and protagonist Nne-nne recounts and re-members Ndom’s orature and historic struggles to her grandson Ajuziogu. Initially unmoved by the power of the Mothers, Ajuziogu is awakened in Part Two and adds the contemporary and personal wars of his wife Stella to the Ogu of Ndom. Issues of domesticity, survival , and re-creation link both sections, and both are united through Ajuziogu, who is the receptive ear of Nne-nne’s orature and the vehicle through which her words become ®esh and ultimately text. Published in 1988, Mama Day spans from 1823 to 1999, with primary settings in New York City...

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